Should You Stay or Should You Go?
It’s that time of year again when teachers have had to answer one of the toughest questions many will face all year: Do you intend to stay next year, or will you be moving on?
For many educators, that question lands heavily. Some have already signed on early, securing job security but feeling an uneasy mix of relief and regret. Others have chosen not to renew, hoping that a move will open new opportunities.
Whether you’ve committed to stay or are preparing to leave, the feeling underneath is often the same: Am I progressing, or am I stuck?
The Real Question Isn’t “Should I Stay?”
In my last article on the same topic, Why Should I Stay at My School?, I wrote that staying is not a sign of complacency, it’s an opportunity to deepen your influence and shape a legacy. Yet staying only makes sense if progression can be defined as more than just a role.
Progression doesn’t depend on a new title or a new school. It depends on being able to articulate where you are in your career, be clear on what matters most, and how you want to create more value for others.
Leaving doesn’t automatically move you forward. Staying doesn’t automatically hold you back. The real question is:
“What would career progression look like if it started from where I am now?”
For example, if you want to evolve from supervisor to leader, the first step isn’t deciding your next move, it’s understanding what kind of leader you want to be. My coaching framework begins with that question of identity and impact:
What values influence your beliefs about leadership?
Which experiences define your approach to people and problems?
What work would feel most meaningful this year? Next year? In five years?
If you’re feeling stuck, the answer may not be to leave, but to lead differently. When we redefine progression this way, we stop looking for escape routes and start looking for leverage points.
Take Control of Your Story
In Accept, Adapt, Overcome and How to Lead Without a Title, I explored what happens when we wait for others to notice our potential. Too often, educators expect opportunity to come through recognition, seniority, or timing, and when it doesn’t, frustration builds.
Progression isn’t about waiting for someone to offer you the next step. It’s about learning how to create it yourself.
Progression requires you to be able to see patterns in how you view yourself, the assumptions you hold about people, the ways you avoid conflict, or the habits that keep you comfortable but unseen. Once you surface those patterns, you can test them through small, deliberate actions that build confidence and credibility.
As a coach, I use that mirror to help teachers and middle leaders:
Name the assumptions keeping them small.
Reconnect with their core values.
Design small, meaningful experiments that build evidence of progress.
Craft a narrative that aligns their work with their long-term aspirations.
The key is ownership. You can’t control who gets promoted or when vacancies appear, but you can control how you develop, connect, and contribute.
Stay and Grow
Many educators leave too soon. They mistake discomfort for stagnation. Yet in Seeing Things Through and Legacy, I argued that some of the richest growth comes from staying put and from learning to navigate complexity rather than outrun it.
It’s easy to believe that change equals progress. But in international education, constant movement can dilute your professional narrative. Schools don’t just hire skill; they hire trajectory. They want to see evidence of growth, resilience, and relational depth.
Using an iterative approach, by designing small meaningful experiments, helps build that evidence where you are. It turns each challenge into a case study of growth, something you can articulate with clarity when the next opportunity arises.
That story becomes your professional currency. It’s what makes you promotable and not because you changed schools, but because you changed how you lead.
You might also be surprised what you learn about yourself in the process. Many middle leaders I coach set their sight on a role and land on something much different, which the school sometimes creates for them.
Where to from Here
If you’re reading this while feeling uncertain about your direction, or your next step, that’s exactly where reflection begins.
You don’t need to know your final destination. You just need to start the cycle to pause, reflect, and design one conversation that signals your intent.
If you’d like to explore the option of Progression Coaching, I’m offering one-on-one progression coaching for educators navigating these decisions. Together, we’ll use a six-session framework to help you test assumptions, learn from action, and build momentum toward the career you want, wherever you are.
Book a short call to explore what progression coaching could look like for you.
Closing Thought
The decision to stay or go isn’t really about geography, it’s about growth. You can’t always choose the timing of opportunity, but you can always choose how prepared you’ll be when it comes.
Take a moment to ask yourself:
What story about my leadership am I ready to tell?
I wish you all well,
Michael
